Reader Recs: Anni Shares Her Picks

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Dear Wendy readers are some of the most intelligent, stylish, super-cool people around (it’s a proven fact), so it’s a no-brainer to feature some of their favorite products. Many of the recommended products happen to be affiliate products, which means I’ll receive a commission on any click-throughs or purchases you make through the affiliate links. As always, I appreciate your support! Today’s recommendations come from Anni, who is a barista who lives in New Jersey with her wonderful parents, two very lazy cats, and her hilarious 93-year-old grandmother, whom she helps care for. She has a degree in psychology, but she would really love to move to New England with her boyfriend of four years to raise goats, chickens, and bees and to make cheese. Her boyfriend fully supports this, and he recently sent her to “Goat School,” where she learned all about goat care and cheese-making. She loves to knit presents for her friends, who all seem to be having babies or getting married lately, and she also loves to garden, read, and practice yoga. She has a love-hate relationship with running, and she would much rather live somewhere cool, cloudy, and melancholic than somewhere warm, sunny, and cheerful; her coworkers have joked that she is a mole. Here are her recommendations:

As someone who is a longtime migraine sufferer, I think that Migraine Be Koool Soft Gel Sheets are a godsend! They’re little sheets of menthol gel that stick right onto your forehead or the back of your neck, and they are perfect for giving you cool relief when you’re at home trying to stave off a migraine or headache. Much easier than trying to keep an ice pack on your head!

I just picked up Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver for the first time this past spring, and I immediately felt so connected to the characters and the setting. If you enjoy strong female characters, look into relationships and family, and have an appreciation for nature, this may be the perfect summer read for you. I couldn’t put it down, and I was thinking about the characters for a long time after I finished.

I have been living in these red sandals since the weather got warm enough this year! They are so comfy! You break them in by soaking them in warm water for a half hour or so and then wearing them around as they dry. They’ll mold right to the shape of your feet, and getting them wet doesn’t harm them at all! Perfect for the beach, adventures through streams or lakes, or just wearing around town.

I was skeptical about switching from tampons and pads to a reusable menstrual cup, but, now that I have, I can’t praise it highly enough. The Lena cup is made in the US out of medical grade silicone, and it is registered with the FDA. I’ve found it to be so much easier, more comfortable, and less messy than tampons or pads. Once you get the hang of inserting it properly, you don’t even feel it at all (really!). The cups are much less drying and irritating than tampons, and, even as someone with a heavy flow, I’ve found that I don’t have to change them nearly as often. If you’re nervous about trying a menstrual cup, Youtuber PreciousStarsPads has a lot of really informative and helpful videos that make it much less intimidating.

I’ve been a lover of Indian food for a long time, but I have always felt very intimidated at the thought of making it at home. I first saw on The Next Food Network Star the bubbly and talented Aarti Sequeira and her cookbook, . Aarti Paarti makes Indian cuisine so accessible! Her narration throughout the book is full of touching stories and personal anecdotes about her family and the recipes she’s presenting, and all of these recipes have been absolutely delicious and simple to make so far!

Thank you, Anni!

If you have some products you’d like to recommend to the DW audience, shoot me an email at [email protected] with links to five recommendations. (Write “reader recs” in the subject line, please.) Your recommendations can be from any store or website, but they need to be accessible online. If your list is a good fit for the site, I’ll ask you to write a brief description of each item/explain what you love so much about it.

2nd the menstrual cup, although I have a different brand. Sooo much better than tampons. I pair mine with a reuseable pad (paranoia), so I don’t have to worry about tampon/pad expenses for the foreseeable future.